


The Child Prodigy

by aheinila



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Adventure, Friendship, Gen, Horror, Loss, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:20:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26546674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aheinila/pseuds/aheinila
Summary: Roughly halfway between Godswood and Elum Kitar lies a remote village, home to the reclusive Druids of the Circle of Dreams. Three young initiates of the Circle, boasting talent the likes of which has not been seen in generations, have been charged with finding the theorized heart of the Realm of Dreams - the Praesidium.This is the tragic story of their success.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 6





	The Child Prodigy

Egan watched while the nightmare surrounding him began to blur. Fangs flashed and claws reached out for him still, craving blood with a mindless hunger, but the monsters had been silenced and, at his will, dissolved to shapeless fog. Overhead, the rumbling storm became an open sky bright with the light of dawn. Egan reshaped the material of the former nightmare into something more beautiful - a glittering blue lake. The air was comfortably warm, stirred by the lightest breeze to carry the evergreen scent of the nearby woods. As the beauty of the new scene solidified he blinked, struck by the faraway thought that he might know this place.

"It's perfect, Egan," Corliss said. He glanced up and over his shoulder to see her smiling toward the lake, her gaze soft and as faraway as his stray thought had been. "Every detail... it's just like really being there." Slowly, her smile turned down and her brows drew together.

Egan stared out over the lake again, hoping that distant hint of recognition might return to him. It didn't.

"Being where?" Maida asked.

"Lake Twilglade." Corliss paused, then added curiously, "At home, you know? Haven't you been to Lake Twilglade?"

There was no audible answer from Maida, but Egan made the connection at last. _Lake Twilglade. I do remember. But that was so very long ago... wasn't it?_ "It's not perfect," Egan said dismissively. He glanced down again, returning his focus where it needed to be.

The Dreamer - a boy perhaps half his age - remained curled up on the ground, his arms thrown over his head defensively. His tears had abated, at least - the heavy sensation of dread which had permeated this Dreamscape had vanished along with the nightmare.

Egan squeezed his hand over the boy's shoulder and, on a whim, added distant birdsong to the Dreamscape. "The monsters have all gone," he said gently. "You can look up and see."

Hesitantly, the Dreamer lifted his head to peer about. Hardly a vestige of fright lingered in his expression - he seemed only confused. Ordinarily Egan would take the time to cheer him better, but...

 _That's good enough. I'll use too much energy if I keep him bound to me any longer._ "It's time for you to wake up now." Egan concentrated his will over the Dreamer, squeezed his shoulder once last time, then shoved him from the Realm of Dreams back into his sleeping body. He heard Maida, behind him, draw in a surprised breath.

Egan stood from the emptied patch of ground and brushed his palms together. "We're close." He turned away from the lake, staring toward a foggy horizon that might be miles away. "We've never been so close before. Can you feel it?"

"Maybe."

Egan glanced to Corliss, who wore a frown.

" _Maybe_ ," she said again, more emphatically, "but aren't you getting tired?"

"No," he lied.

"I'm tired," Maida put in. She fixed him with a stern, 'I-see-right-through-your-lies' look, but it was too brief to rankle. "I want to go home, and sleep without dreams." She looked to Corliss with a hopeful smile. "If we wake up now, after coming so close, we might only have an hour or two before we're sent back. But, if we can reach it..." She didn't finish her sentence, possibly because she couldn't imagine how. Reaching the Praesidium had been their goal for... one year now? Longer? What would happen after they accomplished that goal?

" _When_ we reach the Praesidium," Egan said, "we can sleep for entire days afterward, if we feel like it." Maida brightened at that, which encouraged him further. Egan aimed what he could only assume was a very charming grin at Corliss. She blushed. "We could even go to visit Lake Twilglade, all of us together."

Corliss crossed her arms in a good show of stubbornness, but she was fighting a smile. "Do you really believe we're that close?"

"I know it." Egan darted another glance ahead - the pull of the Praesidium, always present, had never been stronger. "One more Dreamscape, probably."

"One more...?" Corliss echoed him dubiously, but she also followed when Egan started forward.

As they journeyed on, the fog from the edges of the Dreamscape began to edge in on them - with the Dreamer who had owned this place gone, nothing could be done to sustain it. The grass beneath their feet was crushed to mist with every step. Egan shut his eyes to concentrate on what he could feel. Gravity, ever fluctuating within this Realm, was beginning to shift more dramatically - the power pulling him forward had grown greater than that keeping his feet upon the ground. His every step became lighter and longer than the previous.

 _The border to the next Dreamscape must be very near._ Egan opened his eyes to smile sidelong at Corliss. "That was two nightmares in a row. This last one will surely be easy."

Corliss returned his smile, but then Maida said, "Those two nightmares were strong. I think we can say for certain now that the strongest Dreamscapes are those nearest the Praesidium." There was an uneasy sort of tremor in her voice. 

_Is she afraid?_ When was the last time he had seen Maida be afraid of anything? Perhaps when she had first joined them in training... but she had been smaller then, years younger. They had all been younger then. Could it really have been years?

Egan reached out to hold Maida's hand and refused to let his smile falter. "That doesn't mean it's a nightmare."

After a beat of consideration, Maida nodded. She then opened her mouth, but whatever she might have said never had the chance to be heard.

Between one step and the next, Egan felt himself be snatched up off of his feet by the force compelling him forward. The foggy horizon came rushing and stole all visibility as it engulfed him. Egan thought that he flinched, and he might have cried out, but his senses had deserted him and suddenly he could not be certain about anything. He kept hold of Maida's hand purely because it gave him something to cling onto. The pull of the Praesidium, that pull which he had followed so devotedly for so long, grew in strength until the pressure of it was unbearable. His body was sure to be crushed, but then-

At once, that sense of pressure was gone. Egan felt weightless, nigh insubstantial, and then a moment later he could feel Maida's hand again. The world all around was empty white, but-

White flickered to black, and he was falling. He had just a moment to panic about that before his feet touched lightly upon solid ground. Egan felt a flutter of relief. He squeezed on Maida's hand, attempted to blink, and vision returned. There was-

There was pain. Agony. Every individual fiber of his being was wracked to quivering uselessness. His brain swelled against his skull, threatening to leak out his ears like sap from a tree. Egan squeezed his eyes shut and screamed, focusing on the sound, fighting to regain even a shred of cognizance. That struggle might have lasted seconds or hours, but with Egan's triumph the debilitating pain was vanquished. He panted for breath, exhausted and equally exhilarated in the aftermath of that psychic assault. Then, at last, he felt able to open his eyes.

_This is..._

The calm he had just managed to regather deserted him. Egan's breath caught in his throat.

_...the Praesidium!_

Thick, amorphous fog - the stuff that dreams are made of - roiled all around. Indistinct figures lurked within as shadows or spots of light, remnants of nightmares and dreams so powerful that they were never able to fade completely. Flickers of frenetic activity burst from the fog into the air - here flaming hands twitched on charcoal arms, there sapphire fishes leapt from a glittering river of gold, and as he stared a spray of dark blood fell over the skin of his face like rain.

_All the power of the Realm..._

Egan exhaled a shuddery breath, tasting copper on his lips and sour fear on the back of his tongue. A directionless, despairing shriek pierced through the general cacophany. His fingers curled tight around the smaller hand he held, a compulsive action.

_...but it's wild, it's..._

Egan glanced to his either side. Corliss had both hands pressed to the sides of her bowed head, her hair fallen forward to partially obscure her pained expression. Maida had dropped to her knees, eyes wide and mouth open in wordless terror.

_...it's too much!_

Had he honestly believed that this power could be controlled? That it would just be waiting, placid as a reservoir, for a skilled Dream Walker to come along? Waiting just for him? What hubris. Tears stung in his eyes and nausea churned in his stomach.

_Wake up!_

"Wake up," Egan whispered. The noise around was chaos, but his faint voice somehow sounded over it. "Corliss...?" 

She groaned through gritted teeth, but was otherwise unresponsive. 

More firmly, Egan said, "We have to get out of here. Wake up!" He pulled Maida's limp weight up from the ground, noticing for the first time that that ground was a yellowed pile of Giant's bones, and shook her by her shoulders. Her head lolled about, her eyes still staring blankly.

_They can't think through the shock._

"Wake up!" Egan shouted at the top volume he could produce, and Maida flinched. He dared to believe, in just that tiny instant, that they were all going to be fine.

Yet again, that was hubris.

A towering figure took shape from the fog to stalk in their direction. Its skeletal hands hefted a great scythe overhead and the folds of its withered face pulled taut in a toothy grin. The promise of pain radiated from its malevolent gaze, and the scythe was a flash of silver splitting the air.

Still clutching desperately at Maida, Egan leapt backward to avoid the lethal blow. It was instinct, really - if he hadn't been inspired to such panic, he might have chosen to take the hit instead. Death within the Realm of Dreams could be terribly unpleasant, but it was also a quick method of waking.

As Egan and Maida hit the ground tumbling, Corliss screamed. The sound was too primal, far too authentic - they had each died hundreds of dream-deaths, together or individually, and never before had Egan heard such a sound. He whipped his head up as soon as he could, half-staggered to his feet hauling Maida along with him, and then felt every muscle of his body go rigid.

Corliss was down, torn open from shoulder to hip, lying in a puddle of gore - she was down, when she should have been gone. Egan blinked hard, his brain refusing to accept what his eyes could plainly see. At the sound of a rasping laugh, he wrenched his eyes from Corliss to look at the nightmare who had felled her. The creature started forward again, dragging its scythe behind to carve a trail of crimson across the brittle bones. Egan watched its grin stretch wider, and he watched as it raised its weapon again.

"It isn't yours." Egan heard himself speak to the thing, although he had made no conscious decision to do so. Whatever had risen within him to guide his actions, it existed deep beneath his stunned consciousness. "This power... isn't yours to use."

The creature's grin contorted into a hateful sneer. Its shoulders tensed to swing. 

Egan raised his own arm while the scythe began to fall. He splayed trembling fingers toward this monster that dared to wield the Praesidium's power against him. "Fade," he commanded.

The nightmare remnant exploded in a quiet puff of mist.

Egan's arm dropped heavily back to his side. He ran, with Maida, to fall to his knees beside Corliss.

"It hurts!" Corliss shook and sobbed as Egan gingerly rolled her over. "It still h-hurts!" Her words devolved to screams, and he felt shredded by the sound.

"Corliss?" Egan patted his hand against her cheek, but her wide eyes wouldn't focus on him. "Shh, now. It's alright. You can wake up." He concentrated his will to overtake hers, and the weakness of her spiritual resistance was greatly more frightening than the trauma done to her body. _Wake up!_ As he had done earlier for the dreaming boy, Egan attempted to force Corliss back to the Realm of Mortals.

Nothing happened.

Corliss was still screaming, still dying, still clinging to him with pale, bloodied hands.

Egan heard a tiny, strangled noise work its way up from his throat. A sense of helplessness like he had never before known came crashing down onto him. Corliss' form was beginning to blur before his eyes... much like any piece of a dissolving Dreamscape. Mist rose from her skin, stealing color and solidity as it went, snaking away in tendrils to be consumed by the roiling fog.

"What...?" Maida shook her head from side to side in horrified disbelief. "Egan, what's happening?"

 _The Praesidium is taking her._ "Stop!" With no more regard for being ginger about it, Egan crushed Corliss against him and held on tight. She already felt insubstantial, like trying to hold onto a heavy cloud. The sound of her cries had faded, flimsier now than even the echo of a memory. _Don't. Please don't take her!_ Everything he had, everything he could summon, focused on the task of waking Corliss up. This time Egan felt his failure like a physical blow. His will could not compete with that of the Praesidium.

Corliss was translucent in his arms, and then she was nothing at all. Egan let his empty hands fall to his lap. Not a drop of blood remained to serve as evidence that Corliss had ever been there at all.

"She woke up!" Maida said immediately, adamantly. Tears fell in a ceaseless torrent down her cheeks.

Egan knew that was wrong, but he nodded anyway. _She woke up._ The thought was deliberate, desperate, hollowed by denial. Without a word, he put a grip on Maida's shoulder to wrest her will beneath his. There was no struggle, whether due to her shock or his own determination, and Egan watched her vanish properly as he forced her to wake. He lingered only a moment longer, pressing both hands flat over the awful pain in his chest, before waking himself.

**Author's Note:**

> This one-shot is just a small piece of character background and worldbuilding that I wrote out for my homebrew D&D campaign. There's loads more, and I may get around to posting other tidbits from time to time.
> 
> As always, my thanks to you for reading, and I hope that you found it enjoyable. If you have any comments, I'd love to hear from you!


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